Nightly Adventure
by Healer Pomfrey
Summary: During the summer after his first Hogwarts year, Harry decides to leave the Dursleys and follow his deepest desire. Will he succeed? Just a drabble. Completely AU


**Nightly Adventure**

**by Healer Pomfrey**

_All recognizable characters belong to J. K. Rowling, and I am not earning anything by writing this story.  
A huge thanks to my brilliant beta JB5391!_

* * *

Harry Potter woke up in confusion. _'What was that?'_ he wondered. He had just been dreaming, in which he had been casting magic just with his hands instead of using his wand. Having just returned home to his relatives after his first year at Hogwarts, he knew that he was not allowed to use his wand during the holidays. _'But if I can cast magic without my wand, it's different, they won't know'_ he thought, bursting with joy, and scrambled out of the creaky, old bed in excitement.

It was a warm summer night without clouds, with many stars twinkling in the sky. Harry decided to go for a flight on his treasured Nimbus 2000. Waving his hand towards the door, he cast the Alohomora charm, and a huge smile spread over the child's face when the door indeed obeyed his command and the lock clicked open. As quietly as he could, he headed downstairs, casting the same charm at the door of his cupboard in order to fetch his broom. _'Who knows if it'll still work later on,'_ he thought, cast a shrinking charm at his trunk and pocketed his luggage.

An instant later, he left the Dursleys' house and mounted his broom, feeling relatively sure that the neighbours in the Dursleys' oh-so-normal neighbourhood were all asleep at this time of the night. _'Only freaks would leave their house at two o'clock in the morning,'_ he thought, grinning, as he took into the air that felt slightly cool and refreshing to his skin, which was hot and red from the garden work that he had performed all day in the blazing sunshine.

With the exuberant thought _'I'm free and no one can lock me in'_ at the front of his mind, he flew straight on, not minding where he was flying. After a few hours that felt like minutes to the boy, thoroughly enjoying himself, he could see light at the horizon on his right hand side and saw that the seaside was spread out on the left side. _'The Irish Sea,'_ he thought in amazement, remembering his primary school geography lessons. _'It looks beautiful.'_ He decided to fly towards the greeny-blue sea, sparkling in the morning light, as he had never been there. Whenever the Dursleys took Dudley to the seaside, they left him with Mrs. Figg, the cat lady as Harry used to call her.

However, to Harry's surprise and shock, his broom refused to obey and continued its flight north, as though driven by an invisible force. Before he knew what was happening, he could see the towers of Hogwarts in front of him. _'Home,'_ he thought, feeling more excited than he could remember having felt ever before. _'I'm back home.'_ Hogwarts was still far away though, and while he continued to fly, he couldn't help recalling that students were not allowed to stay at the school during the summer. _'I don't care, and I have the invisibility cloak.'_ His thoughts argued.

It slowly became light, and Harry could already make out the dying lights of Hogsmeade Village, when he resolved to land on the ground, deciding he needed to conceal himself. Not bothering to care where he was, he enlarged his luggage, pulled out the cloak and again cast the shrinking spell, noticing that wandless magic was draining, before he got onto his broom again.

_'Hogwarts, I'm coming home,'_ he thought, as he slowly approached the castle that stood black against the sky, which was slowly becoming brighter and held a beautiful mix of yellow, red and light blue colours.

He was flying fairly high in order to not collide with the trees, and as he approached the castle, he noticed that one very small tower was moving forth and back as if it was dancing on the castle's roof. _'What's that? Can the towers move?'_ he wondered in disbelief and carefully flew over the flat area of roof where the movement had caught his eye.

Only when he looked down onto the roof from his high position, he noticed that he was flying over what seemed to be a rooftop garden, and the moving tower was none other than a tall human figure. _'Snape,'_ Harry realised with a combination of shock and curiosity. _'What's he doing on top of the roof at this time of the morning?'_

Very carefully, Harry lowered himself until he was hovering just above the roof. _'It must be a herb garden,'_ he realised, observing the Potions Master quietly care for a few plants and take leaves from others. _'I never knew that there's something like this on the roof,'_ he thought, when the Slytherin Head began to speak to himself.

"Six more years to endure with that pampered, arrogant Potter brat along with the dunderhead Longbottom. Albus has totally gone nuts if he really insists that I become Potter's guardian. Even as his guardian I wouldn't have been able to prevent the brat from going after Quirrell. He has no respect for the rules, just like his father. I'd rather take him here to the roof and leave him here to rot for the rest of his Hogwarts years than to tutor him."

_'Should I speak with him and tell him that I'm neither pampered nor arrogant?'_ Harry wondered. He paused. _'What if he tells the Headmaster that I'm here though?'_

Before Harry could make a decision, the Potions Master swiftly left through a door at the far side of the garden. _'Oh no, I missed him,'_ Harry realised, suddenly feeling slightly disappointed. He landed on the roof, staring at the wonderful, tidy herb garden in amazement, recognising many from Aunt Petunia's kitchen, others however he did not. To his surprise, he noticed a bench on one side of the roof, and when he tiredly let himself sink onto the bench, he saw that it offered a wonderful view over the Hogwarts grounds and the lake, where the Giant Squid was happily playing in the early morning light.

_'It's really cold here though,'_ Harry thought, suddenly beginning to shiver in his thin pyjamas just covered by his invisibility cloak. He was just pondering to open his trunk and change into warmer clothes, when a female voice penetrated his ears, making him jump in shock.

"Harry, wake up," Hermione said in what seemed to be an urgent voice. "We've already reached Hogsmeade, and you still haven't put your robes on."

Harry looked around in confusion, realising that he was sitting on the Hogwarts Express, together with Hermione, Ron and the twins, and that they in fact were just reaching the station at Hogsmeade.

_'It was a dream,'_ he thought, surprised, _'a very realistic one though. Never mind, Hogwarts, I'm coming, and I'm never going to leave. Next summer, I'm just going to hide somewhere in the castle. If necessary on the roof.'_

**The End**

_This was just a small drabble written during a sleepless night, but I thought maybe one or the other of my readers might still enjoy it :-)_


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